Dr. Loosen

Weingut Dr. Loosen sits in Bernkastel-Kues on the Middle Mosel, in the same family for over 200 years. Ernst "Ernie" Loosen took over in 1988 and reoriented the estate around its oldest, own-rooted (ungrafted) Riesling vines in the classic Grosse Lage slate sites: Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Ürziger Würzgarten, Erdener Treppchen and Prälat, and the Graacher Himmelreich and Domprobst. Phylloxera cannot survive in the Mosel's slate, so many of these vines are more than a century old on original rootstock, giving low yields and high concentration. Farming avoids chemical fertilization; ferments run on wild yeasts, and the fruity Prädikat wines age long on their full lees in traditional Fuder casks. A VDP member since the early 1990s, the estate bottles its single-vineyard wines exclusively as Riesling from these classified sites, alongside village and estate cuvées.